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HARVARD UNIVERSITY DURING THE 
LAST TWENTY-FIVE YEARS 

1889-1914 

BY ALFRED CLAGHORN POTTER 

Assistant Librarian of Harvard College 

[Reprinted from the Twenty-fifth Anniversary Report 
of the Class of 1889] 



Buildings in Red have been erected since 1889 




A CraiRie Hall (1897) 

B Trinity Hall (1893) 

C Read's Block 

D Drayton Hall (1902) 

E Dana Chambers (1897) 

F Little's Hall (1854) 

G Dunster Hall (1897) 

H Manter Hall (1882) 

I Apley Court (1897) 



KEY 

J Ridgely HaU (1904) 

K Fairfax Hall 

L Claverly Hall 

M Randolph Hall (1897) 

N Apthorp House 

O A. D. Club 

P Hampden Hall (1902) 

Q Russell Hall (1900) 



R Westmnrly Court (1898) 

S Quincy Hall 

T Beck Hall (1876) 

U Brentford Hall (1900) 

V Ware Hall ( 1894) 
W President's House 

X Hasty Pudding Club 

Y Lampoon Building 



V 



, M I » 






1914 



ao 



t 



THE CHANGES AT HARVARD IN 
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS (1889-1914) 

To record the history and progress of Harvard University 
even for a period of twenty-five years is no light task. 
Much has happened at Harvard since we graduated a quarter- 
century ago. It has been a period of growth and expansion; 
the following pages are an attempt to set forth the story of the 
changes that have taken place. No one can realize more 
keenly than the writer its shortcomings ; but to tell the full tale 
of the growth of Harvard since 1889 in the space allotted me 
by our Secretary was impossible. Much that was of interest 
and of real significance I have had to omit altogether and 
much more to touch all too briefly. And at the beginning 
let me state that this sketch would not have been undertaken 
and could not have been carried even to a reasonable degree 
of completeness had I not had the kind permission of Mr. 
William C. Lane, Librarian of Harvard College, to make free 
use of the record he prepared in 1906 for the Twenty-fifth 
Anniversary Report of the Class of 1881. Not only has his 
account served as a model for the present paper, but from 
it verbatim quotations have been freely made. To him 
the thanks of the Class are due. 
Statistics of Growth. The growth of the University in size 
is what strikes one first. Here is a comparison of the figures 
for our senior year and the current year. 



Officers : 




1888-89 


1913-14 


Professors 




70 


141 


Associate professors 






9 


Assistant professors 




20 


86 


Lecturers 




4 


78 


Tutors 




3 




Associates 






7 


Instructors 




67 


239 


Teaching fellows 






76 


Demonstrators and assistants 


34 


203 


Preachers 




5 


5 


Curators and library assistants 


10 


48 


Business officers, proctors. 


etc. 


32 


66 



Total 245 920 



Class of Eighty Nine 



Students : 


1888-89 


1913-14 


College 






Seniors 


210 


369 


Juniors 


252 


583 


Sophomores 


264 


619 


Freshmen 


309 


619 


Specials 


145 


26 


Unclassified and out of course 




143 


Total 


1180 


2359 


Graduate department 


95 




Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 


497 


Scientific School 


35 




Graduate School of Applied Science 




139 


Graduate School of Business Adminis- 






tration 




113 


Divinity School 


26 


57 


Law School 


217 


695 


Medical School 


275 


310 


Dental School 


42 


196 


Veterinary School 


23 




Bussey Institution 


6 




Summer Schools 


168 


1250 


University Extension 




10 


School for Health Officers 




8 



Total 



2067 



5407 



From the totals in the above table certain deductions have been 
made for names registered in more than one department. 

The above table shows the great increase in numbers that 
the University has made since our day; the number of 
officers is almost four times as 'many as it was; the number 
of undergraduates has doubled; and the whole number of 
students enrolled in all departments is over two and a half 
times as many as there were twenty-five years ago. But 
the table also indicates the changes that have been taking 
place in the organization of the University. The old Grad- 
uate Department that was a mere appendage to the College 






Changes at Harvard, 1889-1914 



has developed into the flourishing Graduate School of Arts 
and Sciences; the Scientific School has become the Graduate 
School of Applied Science; and there has been established 
the Graduate School of Business Administration. On the 
other hand the Veterinary School, after a struggling exist- 
ence of eighteen years, was given up for lack of funds in 1901. 
Changes in the Faculty. Comparatively few of the men who 
were officers of the University twenty-five years ago are in 
active service today. The Corporation is an entirely new 
body. On the present Board of Overseers Henry Cabot 
Lodge is the only one who was a member then. Out of the 
College Faculty of 1889 only twenty are on the "Faculty of 
Arts and Sciences of to-day. These are, in the order of 
seniority, Farlow, Emerton, Lanman, Mark, Sheldon, Briggs, 
Francke, Hall, Lyon, Royce, C. P. Parker, Wendell, Chan- 
ning, Taussig, Wolff, Hart, Kittredge, Grandgent, Baker, 
G. H. Parker. Besides these, there are still living, but no 
longer in active service: Professors Toy, C. J. White, Good- 
ale, Charles H. Moore, Palmer, Trowbridge, Jackson, de 
Sumichrast, J. W. White, Davis, Peabody, Byerly, Hills, 
Cohn, and Sanderson. The Faculty of the Law School has 
changed entirely. 

But the greatest change of all came with the resignation 
of President Eliot in 1909. Just half of the forty years of 
his administration falls within the period of this sketch, and 
it is the half that marks the fruition of his plans for the 
development and betterment of the Universtiy. Nowhere 
has a better or truer account of Harvard's debt to Eliot 
been written than that by our classmate Ropes in an article 
contributed to the Cyclopedia of Education. With his per- 
mission I quote it: 

"President Eliot was able by his foresight, breadth of interest, and 
skill in organization and administration, by his single-minded devotion 
to high aims, and by the dignity of his personal character, to use the 
new forces of the time, command innumerable gifts aggregating a great 
sum of money, and hold the enthusiastic loyalty of a rapidly increasing 
and able staff. In the forty years of his presidency he was able to see 
Harvard widely extend the borders of its work, quadruple in number of 
students, and establish its position as a great national university, in- 
fluential throughout America and honored beyond the seas. His 
efforts were especially devoted to the complete application of the 



Class of Eighty Nine 



elective principle in undergraduate studies, the maintenance of strict 
standards in examinations for entrance and graduation, the inclusion 
of all branches of knowledge and the arts in the opportunities offered 
to students, the development of courses of graduate study in the liberal 
arts and sciences, the requirement of a college degree for admission to 
the professional schools, and the insistence on the highest scientific 
ideals in all the graduate and professional departments. His adminis- 
tration deliberately followed the principle of freedom as a moral force 
in the methods of student discipline and in the regulation of the under- 
graduate curriculum; and was conspicuous for firmness, generosity, and 
justice in the treatment of the faculties and officers of instruction." 

Abbott Lawrence Lowell, '77, was chosen to succeed 
President Eliot and was inaugurated with appropriate and 
impressive ceremonies in October, 1909. Of his adminis- 
tration it is not the place to speak here in detail. Many of 
the changes of the last four years, mentioned elsewhere in 
this report, as for example, the new admission plan, the 
modification in the elective system, the Freshman Dormi- 
tories, and the merger with the Institute of Technology, are 
the direct result of his broad and aggressive policy. 
Finances. The resources of the University have increased 
enormously in the twenty-five years under review. In 1889 
the investments of the University amounted to about 
$6,874,000; in 1913, the corresponding figures were well 
over $27,500,000, to which a considerable sum will be added 
in the current year (1913-14). Gifts to the University, some 
to establish funds, some for immediate expenditure, have 
been as follows in successive five-year periods: — 

1889-1894 (five years) $ 1,859,305 

1894-1899 " " 3,642,574 

1899-1904 " " 6,152,988 

1904-1909 " " 8,608,643 

1909-1913 (four years) 6,573,808 



Total (twenty-four years) $26,837,318 

The average amount of the gifts to the University during 
the last five years has been over a million and three-quarters 
a year. With this constantly increasing stream of wealth 
poured into her lap, it seems at first sight absurd for our Alma 
Mater to plead poverty, and to be harrassed by constantly 



Changes at Harvard, 1889-1914 



recurring "deficits." But a careful examination of the in- 
dividual gifts shows that it is only rarely that the resulting 
income can be used for general purposes or even at the dis- 
cretion of the Corporation for necessary improvements or 
enlargements of work. Most gifts are for a specific purpose, 
generally a new purpose, and not infrequently require the 
appropriation by the Corporation of additional sums to carry 
these purposes into effect. A new building is given to the 
College, and the College has to find the means to heat, light, 
and clean it, and keep it in repair. A sum of money is given 
to the Library to buy books, but the College has to bear 
the expense of cataloguing the books and placing them in 
order on the shelves. A great help towards increasing the 
unrestricted income of the College will come from the 
Twenty-fifth Anniversary funds established by the various 
Classes. Our own will be the tenth of these funds to be 
paid in to the Treasurer. As each fund is about one hun- 
dred thousand dollars, the College has gained through these 
anniversary gifts an addition to its principal of about $1,000,- 
000, and an added free income of nearly $50,000 a year. 
The total net income of the University for 1912-1913, ex- 
cluding the unexpended balances of gifts for new buildings, 
was $2,657,546; of this $1,274,000 was interest on invested 
funds, and $876,000 from fees and rents from students. 

In spite of these generous gifts with the resultant great 
additions to the University's invested property and of the 
increased income received annually from tuition fees, the 
needs of the University are constantly in excess of its re- 
sources. Year by year the necessary cost of running the 
University increases, in spite of rigid economy and "inex- 
pedient frugality." Each year for the last fifteen years, with 
only three exceptions, has shown a deficit, varying from 
$14,750 in 1911-12 to $59,261 in 1905-06. These deficits, 
amounting to a total of over $380,000, have been paid out 
of the principal of certain unrestricted funds, thus reducing 
by that amount the invested capital of the University. 

The exact meaning of the term "deficit" should be under- 
stood. Each professional school and each institution con- 
nected with the University has its own separate income, 
derived from its own students and from its own invested 



Class of Eighty Nine 



capital. A part of this income is restricted to special uses 
(such as the support of a scholarship, or printing, or books), 
the remainder is unrestricted. If in any year the payments 
for salaries, administration, and general expenses exceed 
the income available for those purposes, there is a deficit 
which has to be made up by advances from the University 
(unless the Department already has a credit balance), and 
upon these advances interest is charged. If there is a sur- 
plus, it remains in the hands of the University, is credited 
to the Department which has earned it, and draws interest 
until it is extinguished by deficits. The affairs of the Col- 
lege, the Library, and the Graduate School of Arts and 
Sciences are so closely interwoven that no attempt is made to 
separate their accounts. With these are combined certain 
general University charges, such as retiring allowances, 
salaries of general administrative officers, and the support 
in part of the Museums, Appleton Chapel, and Phillips 
Brooks House. It is in this combined account of University, 
College, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Library, 
etc., that the deficits have occurred which have hampered 
the administration of the University. Other departments, 
like the Law School, may show handsome surpluses from year 
to year, but this does not help out the College. 
New Buildings. The "plant" of the University has also 
grown greatly. In lands, it has acquired the Soldiers Field, 
of about forty acres in Allston; the Harvard Forest, of two 
thousand acres in Petersham, Mass.; and the Engineering 
Camp, of about seven hundred acres at Squam Lake, N. H., 
and several small estates and pieces of land near the College 
Yard. Since 1889, there have been erected by or for the Uni- 
versity some thirty-five new buildings. The accompanying 
map shows the extent of these building operations. Their 
approximate total cost is nearly ten million dollars. If to 
this be added the cost of a dozen private dormitories and a 
number of student- clubhouses, some idea may be formed 
of the material growth of Harvard in this quarter century. 
Most of these new buildings are spoken of elsewhere in this 
report; among those not referred to may be mentioned: 
three dormitories, Walter Hastings, Perkins, and Conant 
Halls; Emerson Hall, the home of the Philosophical Depart- 



Changes at Harvard, 1889-1914 



ment; the New Lecture Hall; the new Chemical Labora- 
tories; the High Tension Laboratory; the Music Building, 
and the new President's House. 

The Administration of the University. This growth of the 
University has necessitated many changes in the methods of 
administration and the creation of new officers and new 
boards. Among the latter is the Resident Executive Board, 
composed of the President, the Comptroller, the Bursar, the 
Regent, the Secretaries to the Corporation, the Inspector 
of Grounds and Buildings, the Assistant Dean, and the 
Secretary for Student Employment. This board deals with 
matters touching the maintenance and improvement of 
grounds, buildings, and equipment, methods of accounting 
and administration, the method of assigning rooms to stu- 
dents, dormitory rents, and other matters referred to it, and 
it is expected to keep the Corporation informed on all the 
questions which affect the business administration of the 
University. 

With the increase in its membership the Faculty had to 
find new methods of doing its work. Too large to act easily 
on details of routine, it has delegated much of its power to 
three small Administrative Boards, one for each of the de- 
„ partments under its care. It is also effectively organized 
in divisions, and some of the divisions are subdivided into 
departments, each division or department consisting of 
teachers engaged in the same or similar fields. This makes 
a group of efficient working units, each responsible for plans 
connected with its own interests, for the direction of the work 
of its own students, and for recommending to the Corpora- 
tion the appointment of the assistants and instructors 
in its own field. 

Admission Requirements. Many changes have been made 
in the requirements for admission to the College ; these have 
been in two directions: first, toward allowing a greater num- 
ber of subjects to count as suitable tests of fitness; and, 
second, "that the college should be more accessible to grad- 
uates of public high schools in all parts of the country", i.e., 
such schools as do not make a business of preparing boys 
for college examinations. With these two ends in view there 
are now in effect two methods of entering Harvard, known 



Class of Eighty Nine 



to the initiated as the "Old Plan" and the "New Plan." To 
be admitted to the Freshman Class under the former a 
candidate must present himself for examination in certain 
studies, amounting to not less than sixteen and one-half 
"units" of school work. Prescribed studies for entrance are 
English, counting three units, and on which, by the way, 
much greater stress is laid than in the past; either Ele- 
mentary Greek or Elementary Latin (two and three units 
respectively) ; either Elementary French or German (two 
units each) ; any one of Ancient, European, English, or 
American History (one unit each) ; Elementary Algebra (one 
and one-half units); and one unit chosen from among the 
following subjects: Physics, Chemistry, Geography, Botany 
or Zoology. In addition to these prescribed studies, a 
candidate must make up the necessary number of units by 
offering himself in certain "advanced" subjects, — Greek, 
Latin, French, German, History, Algebra; or he can get half 
a unit each from Freehand Drawing, Projection Drawing, 
and Civil Government. And if the boy is a candidate for 
the degree of S.B. he can obtain half a point for Blacksmith- 
ing, or for "Chipping, Filing, and Fitting." On the other 
hand one concession has been made to the classicists, in 
that a candidate who presents both Elementary Latin and 
Elementary Greek is admitted on fifteen and one-half units. 
Those of us who remember the requirements for admission 
in 1885 will realize that the change has been very marked; 
but the "New Plan" is still more revolutionary. Briefly 
stated, by this new method a candidate is admitted on 
presentation of evidence of an approved school course satis- 
factorily completed, and on passing four examinations showing 
that his scholarship is of a satisfactory character. The 
nature of the new plan and how it differs from the old may 
perhaps be best given in the words of President Lowell in 
his Annual Report for 1910-1911: "The new requirement 
differs essentially from the other in character and in aim. 
The old examinations are designed to test all the secondary 
school work done, and can be taken a few at a time, an 
examination being passed on each piece of work when com- 
pleted. The system is one of checking off studies and accu- 
mulating credits. The new requirement is an attempt to 

10 



Changes at Harvard, 1889-1914 



measure, not the quantity of work done, but the intellectual 
state of the boy ; a certificate being accepted for the quantity 
of his school work, and examinations being held on sample 
subjects to test the quality of his scholarship. . . To be 
admitted to examination a boy must present a statement 
from his school of the studies he has pursued, and these 
must be the content of a good secondary school course de- 
voted mainly to academic subjects. Four subjects must 
then be offered for examination, and must be offered at the 
same time. One of them must be English; another must be 
Latin or Greek, if the student is to be a candidate for the 
degree of Bachelor of Arts, but may be a modern language 
in the case of a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of 
Science; the third must be Mathematics, or Physics or 
Chemistry (the reason for the option being the difficulty 
that some intelligent boys find in doing themselves justice 
in an examination in Mathematics) ; and the fourth may be 
any subject of an academic character, not already offered, 
that the boy may select. As these are sample examinations 
covering subjects which are of primary importance or in 
which the candidate feels most confident, they -must be passed 
well. But it must be borne in mind that the object is to 
discover whether the boy is fit for college work, not to 
measure his proficiency in particular studies." That this 
new plan, which was only adopted in 1911, is working satis- 
factorily seems to be shown by the fact that boys are coming 
to College from schools that had never presented candidates 
before and that those admitted are proving their fitness by 
holding good rank in the college courses. About a third of 
the present Freshman class were admitted under these new 
requirements. 

There is one other way now of entering Harvard, and that 
is through the examinations held by the College Entrance 
Examination Board. This Board, supported by the princi- 
pal colleges, has achieved something like a uniform statement 
of the requirements in each subject for most colleges through- 
out the country, and holds uniform examinations at a great 
number of different points, the results of which are accepted 
by colleges. In June, 1904, Harvard became a member of 
this Board; and since 1906 the Board examinations have 

11 



Class of Eighty Nine 



been accepted in all subjects. This simplifies the problems 
of the secondary schools, where special courses have often 
had to be provided for the Harvard candidates, and opens 
the way for many boys to come to Harvard who have been 
prevented from so doing by lack of opportunity to secure the 
necessary training. 
Instruction. The elective system, which went into full effect 
just before our entrance when most of the studies of the 
Freshman year were made elective, has always been anxiously 
watched by the Faculty. While as a whole the system was 
satisfactory, yet it was felt that certain grave dangers were 
inherent in any system that gave to the undergraduate a 
practically unlimited and unguided choice of his college 
studies. While probably the majority of students chose 
wisely, there were always some whose choice showed neither 
serious thought nor consistent purpose. There was the danger 
on the one hand, of the student not devoting enough time to 
one subject to master anything thoroughly, and, on the 
other hand, of his concentrating too much in some one field 
with the result that at graduation he was entirely ignorant 
of many subjects and without a broad intellectual outlook. 
To remedy these defects, a scheme for the modification of 
the elective system was drawn up and put into operation in 
1910. Stated broadly, this new plan is one of concentration 
and distribution of studies. To reach this end the courses 
open to undergraduates were divided into four general groups, 
as follows: (1) Language, literature, fine arts, and music; 
(2) Natural sciences; (3) History, political and social sci- 
ences; (4) Philosophy* and mathematics. Each student is 
required to take at least six of his courses in one of these 
groups; that is to this extent at least he must concentrate 
his work. Six more of his courses he must distribute among 
the other three groups. The four remaining courses out of 
the sixteen required for a degree, the student is at liberty to 
take in the subject in which he is concentrating or in such 
other subjects as he wishes. At the end of his Freshman 
year each student is required to discuss with his adviser a 
programme of study for the rest of his college course, not 
specifiying, indeed, the exact courses he intends to take, 
but stating the group in which he means to concentrate, and 

12 



Changes at Harvard, 1889-1914 



the general plan for distribution of the rest of his work. 
While this new scheme has not been in effect long enough 
for a thorough test, there seems to be little doubt that it is 
an improvement over the older more haphazard method. 
It is of interest to note that of these general groups for con- 
centration, that covering history and economics is by far 
the most popular. The group of language and literature 
follows second in popularity. Of individual subjects for 
concentration economics is far in the lead, followed by 
engineering (chosen of course by students who are to enter 
that profession), Romance languages, and English. Com- 
paratively few men are inclined to specialize in either the 
Classics or mathematics. 

Possibly one of the causes of the modification of the 
elective system outlined in the above paragraph is to be 
sought in the great increase in the number of courses and 
the consequent larger opportunity and responsibility of 
choice. In our senior year, there were offered to us two 
hundred and twelve courses, of which one hundred and 
forty-four were rated as full courses and the rest as half- 
courses. The Catalogue for 1913-1914 offers the student 
of today nearly six hundred courses, of which about one 
hundred and eighty are counted as full courses, and the rest 
as half -courses. It may be noted that while twenty-five 
years ago the number of half-courses was less than one- 
third of the total, today they comprise over two-thirds of 
the number of courses offered. The scope of instruction 
has naturally widened very greatly since we were in College. 
Courses in the Celtic and Slavic languages, in comparative 
literature, in education, in astronomy, and in anthropology 
represent some of the new departments of study. 
The Three Years* Course. It was while we were in College 
that the campaign for the reduction of the college course 
from four to three years began; but after much discussion 
the plan was defeated in 1891. Since then, by a series of 
natural developments, such as the abolition of much of the 
prescribed work of the Freshman year, the reduction of the 
number of required courses to sixteen, new rules in regard 
to the anticipation of prescribed English, and the increased 
number and importance of half -courses, it has become not 

13 



Class of Eighty Nine 



uncommon for students to take their A.B. or S.B. at the 
end of three or three and a half years. It is not difficult 
for a boy of good ability to do this by taking one or two 
extra courses a year. To meet the needs of those who finish 
their work in three and a half years and want to leave the 
College, degrees are now conferred in the middle of the year 
but without any public ceremony. For some years the 
number of students thus voluntarily shortening their col- 
lege course showed a steady increase; it has decreased 
somewhat in the last year or two. 

Exchange Professors. The exchange of professors with other 
universities has been one of the interesting developments 
of the last ten years. The plan originated in the series of 
lectures given at Harvard for a number of years by French 
professors or writers through the generosity of Mr. James 
Hazen Hyde, '98. In 1904, Mr. Hyde conceived the idea of 
sending an American professor to lecture in the French 
universities, and again generously supported this scheme. 
A year later a more formal arrangement for the interchange 
of professors was made with the University of Berlin. A 
more recent agreement for an exchange has been made with 
four Western colleges, Beloit College (Beloit, Wis.), Colorado 
College (Colorado Springs, Col.), Grinnell College (Grinnell, 
Iowa), and Knox College, (Galesburg, 111.); under this plan 
Harvard sends one of its professors for a half-year to 
spend a month at each of these colleges, giving regular 
instruction to the students; and each college may send 
to Cambridge for half a year one of its instructors, who 
will give a third of his time to teaching, and spend the rest 
in study or research. The men who have represented Har- 
vard in these exchanges are: in France, Professors Wendell, 
Santayana, Coolidge, Baker, Bliss Perry, Schofield, Davis, 
Wilson, Maxime B6cher; in Germany, Peabody, Richards, 
Schofield, Davis, George F. Moore, Miinsterberg, Theobald 
Smith, Minot, Coolidge; at the four Western colleges, Hart, 
Palmer, Clifford H. Moore. 

The Appointment Offices. A larger number of students than 
the outside public can realize need to earn money to pay part 
or all of their expenses while in College. To help such men 
find work, the College maintains the Office for Student 

14 



Changes at Harvard, 1889-1914 



Employment. The report of the secretary for employment 
shows that in the aggregate students in the University earned 
last year not less than $184,643, one-half of which was ob- 
tained by work found for them through his office. The 
temporary occupations of the students thus employed (there 
were 554 positions filled in the year 1912-13) are of a most 
varied nature. Undergraduates, either during term-time 
or in the summer vacation, found places as ticket-takers 
and tutors, as camp councillors and choremen, and so on 
through a list of some seventy different kinds of work. But 
the effort of Harvard to help its students to find employment 
does not stop on Commencement Day, for there are two 
offices whose function is to aid graduates in obtaining perma- 
nent positions. These are the Harvard Alumni Association 
Appointment Office (50 State St., Boston) and the University 
Office for Recommendation of Teachers. The former en- 
deavors to place men in suitable business and technical 
positions, while the latter, as its name indicates, is chiefly 
concerned with placing men who seek teaching or educational 
administrative offices. Figures have recently been compiled 
for 1912-13, showing that the Alumni Office filled 99 posi- 
tions, and the Faculty Office 40. The holders of 129 of these 
139 positions have reported their salaries amounting in all 
to $125,793, an average of $975. Of the ninety-nine posi- 
tions filled by the Alumni Office, three were in banking 
and brokerage, four in engineering, two in insurance, fifty- 
six in manufacturing, six in journalism, ten in mercantile busi- 
ness, six in public service corporations, one in real estate and 
management and six in secretaryships. Of the forty posi- 
tions filled by the Faculty Office, twenty-four were by the 
Graduate School of Applied Science, eight by the Graduate 
School of Business Administration, five by the chemistry 
division, and three by the social ethics department. 

These offices are different from most organizations of their 
kinds in that their services are free alike to employers and to 
Harvard men seeking positions, and, moreover, they have 
the reputation of telling inquirers justly and frankly about 
the men recommended. They desire to serve not only men 
just leaving College and seeking their first positions, but also 
those who are looking for promotion. The Alumni Associa- 

15 



Class of Eighty Nine 



tion Office should be better known to employers by reason 
of its facilities for sending good men into manufacturing and 
mercantile houses; graduates all over the country who have 
the responsibility of appointing subordinates can get such 
men recommended to them, and at the same time serve the 
College, by making it their custom to apply for assistance 
to this Office. 

STUDENT LIFE 

The Harvard Union. A great change in student life was wrought 
by the establishment, in 1900, of the Harvard Union. The 
building, the gift of Mr. Henry Lee Higginson, contains all 
the conveniences of a well-appointed club, except those for 
selling liquor. It not only offers a convenient rendezvous 
for social diversion, but it also affords an opportunity to get 
the daily news from almost every city in the United States 
through its newspapers, while a large number of the best 
magazines of the day are kept on file. In the library 
on the second floor may be found about 12,000 books which 
provide a serviceable reference library, and the foundation 
of an excellent collection in English and other modern liter- 
ature. The library is much used by men who wish to find a 
quiet retreat for study. The Union also provides good 
quarters for the athletic management, for the Crimson (with 
its editorial rooms and its printing-office), the Advocate, and 
the Monthly, and suitable rooms for the territorial clubs, 
the debating societies, and such other societies as do not have 
rooms of their own, but meet at stated intervals and require 
a regular meeting place. It is also found to be an admirable 
place for the occasional dinners or luncheons which societies 
or graduate associations of various kinds hold, and for the 
hospitalities which the College wishes to extend from time 
to time to visiting bodies or to distinguished strangers. The 
gfeat Living Room is frequently utilized during the year 
for public meetings and for addresses by eminent men, and 
for class meetings, as well as for the Junior and Class-day 
dances. And for the less formal entertainment that students 
may wish to extend to their visiting friends or relatives, the 
restaurant and the ladies' dining-room have proved a great 
improvement over the old eating places in Harvard Square. 

16 



Changes at Harvard, 1889-1914 



As a common meeting place for students of every class and 
kind the Union has reasonably well fulfilled the expectations 
of its founders. It has not revolutionized the social life of 
the undergraduate, but it has done much toward fostering 
a general spirit of comradeship and in providing a place for 
frequent student gatherings that has served to knit the Col- 
lege more closely together. At present the membership is 
about 2190, of which 1400 are undergraduates, or fifty-nine 
per cent of the number of students in the College classes. 
This is slightly less than last year, but the membership shows 
a tendency to vary unaccountably from year to year. A 
count recently made showed an average attendance of 926 
men per day. 
The Dining Halls. At Memorial Hall there have been several 
changes of plan and a general reorganization. In 1903, a 
new system of charging board was inaugurated which may 
be described as half way between the old fixed price system 
and the a la carte plan. While this eliminated some of the 
wastefulness that had grown up under the old system and 
slightly decreased the cost of board, it did not prove entirely 
successful and in 1909 a return was made to the old fixed 
price for board. The Dining Hall Association had been 
getting into financial troubles and it was felt that the burden 
of carrying on the Hall was too much to be left almost en- 
tirely to undergraduates. The management of the dining 
halls was put into the hands of a University Dining Council, 
consisting of three persons appointed by the Corporation, 
three elected by the members of Memorial, and three elected 
by the members of Randall Hall. Under this arrangement 
the quality of the food and service has been improved, and 
the membership of Memorial which had been falling off has 
come back nearer to normal. The price of board is now 
$5.25 a week. Randall Hall, built from the bequest of John 
W. and Belinda Randall, was opened in 1899 to provide a 
place where students might find good food at a lower cost 
than at Memorial. The service is a la carte or in "combina- 
tion meals," and the cost of board thus varies, — the average 
is between $3 and $3.50 a week. For the last two years, 
since the demolition of Gore Hall, the College Library has 
been temporarily quartered in Randall Hall; but a dining 

17 



Class of Eighty Nine 



hall on similar lines has been opened in Foxcroft Hall. 
What effect the opening of the Freshman Dormitories with 
their dining halls where all Freshmen are expected to eat, 
will have on Memorial and Randall, remains to be seen. 
The opening of the dining-room in the Union, the establish- 
ment of several restaurants and of innumerable lunch- 
counters and cafes in the vicinity of Harvard Square, and 
also the ease with which the hotels and restaurants of Boston 
can be reached by the Subway in only eight minutes, seem 
to have made a change in the eating habits of the students.. 
A much larger proportion of students than formerly have no 
regular boarding-place, but wander from one place to another 
as fancy moves them. 
The College Yard. The appearance of the College Yard has 
sadly deteriorated, for the glory of its great elms is almost a 
thing of the past. Attacked for a succession of seasons by 
various insect pests, the old trees have died one after another, 
until it is only a question of a very short time when the last 
of them must be cut down. They are gradually being re- 
placed by red oaks, but it will be many years before the 
Yard can regain anything like its former beauty. On the 
other hand, its appearance and dignity is improved by the 
high iron fence that has taken the place of the old wooden 
rails that used to surround it. It is broken at irregular in- 
tervals by a dozen memorial gates, mostly the gifts of various 
classes. Socially, too, the Yard has undergone changes. 
With the erection in the '90's of many private dormitories 
in the Mount Auburn Street region (the so-called "Gold 
Coast"), it lost to some extent its popularity, and there were 
often vacant rooms in the College dormitories. In spite of 
such improvements as shower-baths and steam heat intro- 
duced in some of the older buildings, it seemed for a time as 
if the College Yard would never recover its prestige in com- 
petition with the greater convenience and luxury of the 
more modern private dormitories. But some half-dozen 
years ago, the custom started of the Seniors taking rooms in 
the Yard for the last year of their College life. This has 
spread until now over half of the senior class lives in the 
senior dormitories. Rooms in these buildings, which are 
Hollis, Stoughton, Holworthy, Thayer, and part of Matthews, 



18 



Changes at Harvard, 1889-1914 



are assigned only to Seniors and arrangements are made so 
that groups of friends can get rooms in the same entry. 
This new plan has not only brought back to the Yard the 
traditional college life that it seemed in grave danger of 
losing but it has done much toward promoting a proper 
college spirit. 
The Freshman Dormitories. Just as the Seniors have of their 
own volition got together for the final year of the College 
course, so hereafter the Freshmen, by the action of the Col- 
lege authorities, will have to live together in their first year. 
The plan of having special dormitories where practically 
the whole of the freshman class should room together is 
largely President Lowell's and the early accomplishment of 
this scheme is also mainly due to his personal effort. Three 
of these Freshman Dormitories are nearly completed and 
will be ready for occupancy next fall. They are situated near 
the corner of Boylston Street and the parkway along Charles 
River. One of these was paid for from the bequest of George 
Smith and will be known as Persis Smith Hall; the second 
is from a gift of Mrs. Russell Sage and at her request is to be 
called Standish Hall ; and the third, provided for from a num- 
ber of subscriptions from graduates and others, will be named 
Gore Hall, in order to perpetuate the name of Christopher 
Gore, so long associated with the old Library building now 
torn down. These buildings, all designed by Mr. Charles 
A. Coolidge, are in the colonial style of architecture, not 
unlike the older buildings in the College Yard. They will 
house over four hundred and fifty students which is by far 
the greater part of the present freshman class that does not 
live at home. Besides the usual rooms, some single and some 
in suites for two, or more, students to use jointly, each 
building will have a dining hall, where the occupants of the 
dormitories are expected to take their meals. 

As there has been not a little misapprehension of the pur- 
pose of the Freshman Dormitories and the means to be 
adopted to carry it out, let me quote President Lowell's own 
statement from his Report for 1911-12: "People not very 
familiar with the progress of the plan have expressed a fear 
that the Freshmen would be treated like boys at boarding 
school; but that would defeat the very object in view, of 

19 



Class of Eighty Nine 



teaching them to use sensibly the large liberty of college life. 
Liberty is taught to young men not by regulations, but by 
its exercise in a proper environment. The vital matter is 
the atmosphere and the traditions in which the youth is 
placed on entering college. At present he is too much en- 
chained in a narrow set of friends who copy one another, not 
always wisely, and come too little into contact with the 
broadening influences of the college community as a whole." 
The object, thus, is not to repress and restrain the Freshman 
by too stringent rules and regulations, but to help him to 
learn to conduct his own life properly and to show him how 
he can get the best out of his life at Harvard. 
Expense of Living. One often hears comment, generally 
regretful comment, on the increase of luxury and expensive 
living among college students. That such a change has taken 
place cannot be denied, a change parallel with the same 
general rise in the scale of living in the homes from which 
students come. It is doubtless true, as President Eliot said 
in his Report for 1901-02, that the poorest student of today 
in the cheapest college dormitories is better provided with 
light, heat, books, and apparatus, than the richest student 
was sixty years ago; it is also true that the means of living 
expensively and luxuriously exist in "Cambridge as elsewhere, 
but the mode of life of the great majority of the students 
remains reasonably simple judged by the standards of the 
time. "For some reasons one could wish that the University 
did not offer the same contrast between the rich man's 
mode of life and the poor man's that the outer world offers; 
but it does, and it is not certain that the presence of this 
contrast is unwholesome or injurious. In this respect, as 
in many others, the University is an epitome of the modern 
world." An interesting pamphlet issued last year by the 
University under the title "Students' Expenses and College 
Aids" shows that a careful man can with strict economy 
still keep his annual college expenses under five hundred 
dollars a year. The means for aiding needy and meritorious 
students have increased greatly. There are under the 
Faculty of Arts and Sciences at present some 460 scholar- 
ships and fellowships, with a total income of over $115,000. 
Of these 305 with an income of $67,000 are for undergraduates 

20 



Changes at Harvard, 1889-1914 



in Harvard College, and for these undergraduates there are 
also available from the Beneficiary Aids, the Loan Funds, 
and the Price Greenleaf Fund, $23,900. It is worth noting 
that nearly two-thirds of these undergraduate scholarships 
have been founded within the last twenty-five years. 
Athletics. Athletics continue to play a large part in under- 
graduate activities; and in the eye of the public they are 
the most conspicuous feature of collegiate life. No small 
portion of the time of the governing boards of the College is 
spent in an endeavor, sometimes futile, to make athletic 
interests subordinate to the real aim of the College. To 
attempt to relate in detail all the measures that have been 
taken to regulate intercollegiate games would be far to ex- 
ceed the limits of this paper. But as those members of the 
Class who still take an interest in sports have probably fol- 
lowed the changes pretty closely, and as those who no longer 
have sporting instincts would find no interest in reading 
about their development, I feel I can safely touch most 
summarily on this phase of the history of the last twenty-five 
years. Nor will I go into the pros and cons of the discussions 
whether football is brutal, or baseball a fit game for gentle- 
men; every one has his opinion on these points and this is 
no place for polemics. The Athletic Committee, substan- 
tially the same as when it was created in our senior year, 
still exercises a healthful control over the games. The gate 
receipts, now amounting to about two hundred thousand 
dollars a year, are pooled in the hands of the Graduate 
Treasurer, and this same officer has an oversight over the 
expenditure of this money. This has helped to restrict the 
tendency to demoralizing extravagance in the management 
of the teams. 

The scene of Harvard athletics has changed since our day; 
Holmes Field is almost covered with buildings, and Jarvis 
Field is given over to tennis courts. The games now all 
take place on Soldiers Field: By a gift made to the Uni- 
versity in 1890 by Mr. Henry Lee Higginson, the students 
were provided with this additional play-ground of twenty 
acres. This new field, named by the donor, is situated in 
Allston, just across the Charles River. In 1903, by a gift 
from the Class of 1879 and from funds accumulated by the 

21 



Class of Eighty Nine 



Athletic Committee, a Stadium was erected with a seating 
capacity of about twenty-two thousand. Since 1898, the 
Longfellow Marsh has been enclosed to form part of Soldiers 
Field, and by improvement of the marsh one or two acres 
have been added to the play-ground every year until now 
about forty acres are in use. The total available area will 
ultimately be more than sixty acres. Soldiers Field includes 
tennis courts, running track, hockey rinks, and several foot 
ball, baseball, and lacrosse fields. On the Field are the 
Locker Building, erected in 1894 from subscriptions from 
graduates, and a building for the use of the Baseball and other 
teams, erected in 1898 in memory of Henry Astor Carey. 
Near by is the University Boat House, given in 1900 by the 
Harvard Club of New York, and used by the regular crews 
and by the Newell Boat Club ; and the Weld Boat House, built 
in 1907 by the bequest of George Walker Weld, with accom- 
modation for 700 students and reserved in general for stu- 
dents not on regular crews. It is perhaps worth noting that 
the new Freshman Dormitories are in close proximity to this 
centre of athletic interests. 

The growth of Harvard's athletic plant in the last 25 years 
has been at least equaled by the gain in the athletic prestige 
of the College measured in terms of victories over Yale. 

In the four years during which the Class of 1889 was in 
College Harvard did not win from Yale a university football 
game or boat race. There were occasional victories in 
baseball, but every series of games in that sport also was 
taken by Yale. Harvard did better in track and field 
athletics than in other competitions; for, the Harvard team 
won the intercollegiate meets in 1886 and 1888. There were 
no dual meets in those days. 

Things have radically changed since that dark period. In 
the years from 1899 to 1913, inclusive, Yale has won seven 
university boat races, and Harvard has won eight. Since 
1905 Yale has beaten Harvard only once — in 1907. The 
year 1899 was memorable because E. C. Storrow, '89, coached 
the Harvard crew and produced an eight which won a 
signal victory over Yale; in that year Harvard won also the 
races for freshman eights and university fours, thus "sweeping 
the river" for the first time. In 1900 Storrow turned out 

22 



Changes at Harvard, 1889-1914 



a crew even better than the one which had been victorious 
in the previous year, but the 1900 eight was barely beaten 
because the stroke oar, who only a day or two before the race 
had taken the place of the regular stroke and captain, was 
overcome by the sun. 

The record in football has been almost if not quite as good 
as that in rowing. Since 1908, when P. D. Haughton, '99, 
began to coach the Harvard elevens, Yale has won but one 
game — the one played in Cambridge in 1909. Harvard, on 
the other hand, won at New Haven in 1908 and 1912, and 
in Cambridge in 1913. 

Moreover, in the last ten years Harvard has won her full 
share of the baseball series and the dual track and field meets 
with Yale. Most of the intercollegiate athletic meets have 
been won by other colleges, notably Cornell and the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania. In lawn tennis, golf, association 
football, and particularly in hockey Harvard has had marked 
success not only against Yale but against other opponents 
also.* 

Class Day exercises about the Tree were given up in 1898, and 
for the next few years there was substituted a gathering 
around the John Harvard statue in the Delta. This never 
proved entirely satisfactory, and in 1904 the experiment 
was made of having the exercises in the Stadium on Soldiers 
Field. In spite of the long and often dusty walk down 
Boylston Street and across the River, — this year for the 
first time the Class Day crowd will have the advantage of 
crossing by the new Anderson bridge, — this change has been 
a decided success. A speaker's stand is erected facing the 
curved end of the Stadium, which is the only part used for the 
day, and from this the Ivy oration, cut out from the morning 
exercises in Sanders Theatre, is delivered. Cheering by the 
seniors, the undergraduates, and the graduates, the passing 
down of the class colors from seniors to freshmen, and 
showers of confetti and gay-colored paper streamers make up 
the rest of the programme. 

Commencement Week, too, has undergone changes. Three 



*For the above athletic summary, the thanks of the Class are due to 
our classmate, John D. Merrill, who prepared it. 

23 



Class of Eighty Nine 



years ago, in order that all the various ceremonies and 
festivities that go to make up the final week of the College 
year should fall within a single week, a general rearrangement 
of the programme was introduced. Under the new system the 
Phi Beta Kappa exercises occur on Monday; Class Day, on 
Tuesday; the Harvard-Yale baseball game, and meetings of 
Professional School Alumni, on Wednesday; Commencement, 
on Thursday; the Harvard- Yale races, on Friday. It seems 
to have met general approval. 

The Co-operative Society, which is now an incorporated institu- 
tion, grows stronger every year. It occupies the whole of 
the Lyceum Hall building and is planning the erection of a 
new and more commodious building. Its annual business 
amounts to over $400,000 and it distributes each year to its 
members a substantial dividend based on the total of their 
purchases. 

Harvard Square and the Subway. Since the opening of the 
Subway to Boston, in 1912, Harvard Square has taken on a 
permanent Sunday quietude. The constant rush of electrics 
with the crowds of people ever changing cars is a thing of the 
past. The surface cars from more distant suburbs enter the 
Subway beyond the Square and their passengers change under 
the very centre of Harvard Square to trains that carry them 
to Park Street in eight minutes. The general appearance 
of the Square has improved somewhat: on the one side the 
College Yard is enclosed by its handsome fence, and on the 
other, many of the older buildings have given place to larger, 
if less picturesque, structures. A committee of Cambridge 
business men, alarmed by the loss of trade caused by the 
Subway, has invoked the aid of some of the College experts 
in evolving a plan to make the Square more attractive and 
thus win back by beautification some of its lost business. 

Student Papers. The papers issued by the undergraduates 
show little change; the Crimson, the Lampoon, the Advocate, 
and the Monthly go on much as they always have. There 
has lately been a movement to combine the two last men- 
tioned, but so far without success. The Lampoon now has a 
building of its own, which is worth noting, for it is one of the 
few and certainly one of the best architectural jokes ever 

24 



Changes at Harvard, 1889-1914 



perpetrated. There is also one other student paper in the 
field, — the Harvard Illustrated Magazine. 

Phillips Brooks House. The House erected as a Memorial of 
Phillips Brooks was dedicated on January 23, 1900, and pro- 
vides an important reinforcement of the religious life of the 
University. Phillips Brooks House is designed to extend 
and unite many scattered undertakings of religion and philan- 
thropy in the University. It represents, as the first appeal 
for such a building stated, "one more step in the compre- 
hensive plan of religious work of which the establishment of 
the Board of Preachers was the first step." It is a centre 
for the social and charitable activities of the University as 
well as for religious meetings, a kind of Parish House con- 
nected with the administration of the College Chapel. The 
tablet which stands in its vestibule accurately describes its 
purpose: — "This House is Dedicated to Piety, Charity, 
Hospitality, in Grateful Memory of Phillips Brooks." 

The great parlor on the first floor is the seat of constant 
hospitality exercised by the College and its members. Every 
afternoon it is open as a place where men may bring their 
visitors to rest and refresh themselves ; throughout the winter 
on Friday afternoons ladies of the families of college officers 
welcome here all students and officers of the University who 
care to look in and take a cup of tea, and the room is generally 
well filled; from time to time college societies use the rooms 
for small public meetings or for receptions to visiting lecturers ; 
on Commencement Day the Class that celebrates its fiftieth 
anniversary occupies the house, and invites the survivors of 
other older classes to meet with it; and during the period 
of the Summer School the house is devoted to the special 
use of the ladies of that school. 

Charitable work of many kinds engaged in by college stu- 
dents is organized and directed at the Phillips Brooks House 
by a student body, the Phillips Brooks House Association. 
It serves all the societies alike by employing a general secre- 
tary, it maintains an information bureau for freshmen, and 
it gives the freshman who is a stranger a welcoming hand, 
and whatever guidance fellow students can supply. 

The Stillman Infirmary, the gift of Mr. James Stillman of 
New York, is another institution which has a distinct part in 

25 



Class of Eighty Nine 



student life. It was opened in the autumn of 1902, and a 
ward for contagious diseases, for which Mr. Stillman added 
$50,000 to his original gift of $100,000, was built two years 
later. A uniform fee of four dollars is charged to every 
student registered in the Cambridge departments of the 
University. Unmarried officers and students in other de- 
partments may pay the same fee and have the same privi- 
lege in return, — namely, in case of sickness, a bed in a ward, 
board, and ordinary nursing for a period not exceeding two 
weeks. These fees amount to about $14,800, which, with 
other receipts from patients (from $4000 to $5000), is suffi- 
cient to give the institution proper support. During the 
year 1911-12, 499 cases were treated at the Infirmary; of 
these 25 were cases of appendicitis, 47 of grippe, and 64 of 
tonsillitis. 

In connection with the Stillman Infirmary should be 
mentioned the Medical Visitor, who has general charge of 
the health of the College, visits students who are sick, unless 
they prefer the visits of some other physician, must be con- 
sulted by students who wish to "sign off" or be excused from 
college work on account of sickness, watches sharply for all 
cases of contagious disease, and is especially concerned with 
the administration of the Infirmary. Beginning next fall 
all Freshmen will be required to submit themselves to a 
physical examination to ascertain their general condition 
and fitness. 

THE DEPARTMENTS 

The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Until after our 
graduation there was no real Graduate School, merely a so- 
called Graduate Department with little formal organization 
and attended by less than a hundred students, candidates for 
higher degrees. In 1890, however, it was put on a more 
solid basis and became formally known as the Graduate 
School. Under this better organization and offering more 
courses, it began a period of steady and healthy growth, 
until fifteen years later it had nearly four hundred students. 
In 1905, after the adoption of the requirement of a pre- 
liminary degree for admission to the professional schools 
had made them in a sense graduate schools, the name the 

26 



Changes at Harvard, 1889-1914 



Graduate School had become a misnomer, and it was changed 
to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. The School 
has continued to grow and now numbers nearly 500 men. 
Of these 228 are graduates of Harvard, while the others come 
from eighty-eight American colleges and seventeen foreign 
colleges. Thirty-four men are abroad on traveling fellow- 
ships. Although at least two years devoted to advanced 
study is required of candidates for the doctor's degree, more 
than half the members of the Graduate School remain but 
one year. Many have pursued graduate studies elsewhere 
before coming to Harvard, others go from our school to other 
universities to continue their studies, the German custom of 
migration from one university to another being now fairly 
well established in America. 
Graduate School of Applied Science. In our day, the old 
Lawrence Scientific School was considered rather a moribund 
institution, a refuge for men who could not get into the Col- 
lege, and with its handful of students (from eighteen to 
thirty-six while we were in College) was deemed a fit subject 
for jest. But under the deanship of Professor Shaler it 
became one of the most nourishing parts of the University; 
in the year of his death (1906) it had over five hundred 
students, — and this in the face of more stringent admission 
requirements. In the following year, the School was en- 
tirely reorganized and, under Dean Sabine, became the 
Graduate School of Applied Science, being placed on the 
same basis as the other graduate schools of the University. 
This reorganization and development was rendered possible 
mainly through the great bequest, amounting to some five 
million dollars, from Gordan McKay for work in applied 
science. The courses in this School are given under five 
different branches: the School of Engineering, located 
mainly in Pierce Hall, and giving the degrees of Master in 
Civil Engineering, in Mechanical Engineering, and in Elec- 
trical Engineering; the Mining School, centred in the Rotch 
Building, and granting the degrees of Mining Engineer and 
Metallurgical Engineer ; the School of Architecture and Land- 
scape Architecture, located in Robinson Hall, one of the best 
equipped of the University buildings, giving the degrees of 
Master of Architecture and of Landscape Architecture; the 

27 



Class of Eighty Nine 



School of Forestry, with headquarters during the winter 
months in the Bussey building at Jamaica Plain, and during 
the rest of the year at the Harvard Forest of 2,000 acres at 
Petersham, Mass., and giving the degree of Master of Forestry; 
and the School of Applied Biology, located on the grounds of 
the Bussey Institution at Jamaica Plain, and in itself a re- 
organization of that old foundation, and giving degrees of 
Master of Science and of Doctor in Applied Biology. 

Recently, an announcement has been made that will in 
the course of a few years make a great change in the charac- 
ter of this School ; it is the merger of the engineering courses 
now given at Harvard with the similar courses at the Massa- 
chusetts Institute of Technology. Of this merger, which will 
not take actual effect until the completion of the new build- 
ings of the Institute now being erected on the Cambridge 
side of the Charles River, President Lowell says : 

"Friends of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology — and they have many friends in common — have long de- 
plored the rivalry of two schools of engineering competing on opposite 
sides of a river. The disadvantages have been made even more evi- 
dent by the decision of the Institute to cross the Charles; but the 
difficulty of making an arrangement satisfactory to both parties has 
hitherto been very great; and, in fact, the obstacles to a combination 
between rival institutions supported by and serving the same com- 
munity have been one of the grave defects of higher education in Amer- 
ica. This difficulty seems at last to have been overcome here by a plan 
for cooperation in the conduct of one school of engineering and mining. 
The plan is favorable to both institutions. Both gain thereby. Which 
gains the most can probably not be determined, and certainly has not 
been computed, for the leading motive with the authors of the agreement 
has lain in another plane. Both institutions exist for the promotion 
of instruction and research. Each is a means to an end larger than 
itself, the welfare of the community as a whole; and that both acting 
in concert can further this end better than either working alone cannot 
be doubted. By the combination of resources and momentum a school 
ought to be maintained unequaled on this continent and perhaps in the 
old world." 

This agreement between Harvard and Technology pro- 
vides in general that neither institution shall be affected in 
name, organization, or title to property, but that the re- 
sources of both are to be so utilized that duplication of effort 
and equipment shall be avoided in the special subjects now 

28 



Changes at Harvard, 1889-1914 



considered in the plan of amalgamation. These are the 
departments of mechanical, civil, electrical, and sanitary 
engineering, and mining and metallurgy. Harvard pro- 

• fessors and instructors in these subjects will have a corre- 
sponding rank in both institutions and students in these 
courses will be ordinarily enrolled in and receive degrees 
from both Harvard and Technology. The president of 
Harvard takes an advisory part in the selection of any 
future president of the Institute. The corporations of both 
institutions must be consulted in regard to appointments 
to important positions in the common departments. 

Graduate School of Business Administration. A recent 
addition to the professional graduate schools is the Graduate 
School of Business Administration. This was established 
in 1908, with Professor E. F. Gay as Dean. The School 
offers preparation for those branches of business in which 
a professional training may now suitably be given, such as 
transportation, banking, insurance, accounting, and auditing. 
The two years of graduate study, based upon the preliminary 
college course, comprise a series of new courses in general 
subjects, commercial law, economic resources, industrial 
organization, and principles of accounting, followed by the 
more specialized courses leading directly to the business for 
which the student is fitting. While efficient training for 
business is the service to the community which Harvard 
chiefly designs in the foundation of the School, the instruction 
given provides also, in certain directions, for those who aim 
to enter the Government service. While the needs of certain 
specialized lines of business are kept prominently in view, 
the student planning for other activities in commerce or 
manufacturing is not neglected. In addition to the more 
general courses already indicated, especial attention will be 
given to the development of the work in business organiza- 
tion and system. Instruction in this branch, particularly 
in the second year, may be readily adapted to meet indi- 
vidual requirements. In addition to the courses of instruction 
by the members of its own Faculty, the School offers numer- 
ous lectures by experts and business men of experience in 
various lines of activity. At the end of the two year course, 
it grants the degree of Master in Business Administration. 

29 



Class of Eighty Nine 



The Divinity School. The chief event in the history of the 
Divinity School was brought about by the removal, in 1908, 
of the Andover Theological Seminary to Cambridge. While 
each institution maintains its independence, the two were 
formally affiliated, so that courses in either one may under 
certain conditions be counted toward a degree in the other. 
Moreover, the courses offered by the two faculties are 
planned so as to form one systematic body of theological 
instruction. While the Harvard School still maintains its 
undenominational character, the scope of its instruction 
has been broadened by its association with Andover. The 
libraries of the two institutions have been consolidated and 
are housed in the new building erected by Andover near the 
Divinity School, in what we used to know as " Norton's 
Woods." 

The Law School. The history of the Law School is one of 
continued prosperity. Its growth has been checked from 
time to time by more rigorous admission requirements, but, 
in spite of this, the number of students today is more than 
three times what it was twenty-five years ago. Since 1899 
only graduates of approved colleges have been admitted as 
regular students. Of the 695 students registered at the 
beginning of the current year, 167 were graduates of Har- 
vard and the remainder represented 141 other colleges. 
The intercollegiate and national character of the School is 
shown by the fact that over three-quarters of the students 
are graduates of colleges other than Harvard and that two- 
thirds of them come from outside of New England. About 
sixty per cent of the graduates are practising law outside of 
the New England states. A new building, Langdell Hall, 
was erected in 1907, and paid for out of the accumulated 
surpluses of the School. The library of the Law School has 
grown rapidly and been built up systematically, until today 
it is considered the best collection of legal books in the world. 
It contains over 151,000 volumes. 

The Medical School. The Medical School had in 1888-89, 
275 students; it grew rapidly and in 1900-01 there were over 
600 men registered in the School. In that year, the require- 
ment of an A.B. for entrance to the School was put into 
effect, with the not unexpected result of an immediate and 

30 



Changes at Harvard, 1889-1914 



large decrease in the number of students. The School has 
never regained its maximum numbers and at present has 
310 students. Last year an important change was made in 
regard to the requirements for admission into the School. 
Under the old rules it was provided that in exceptional 
cases students without a degree might be admitted if they 
had spent two years in a college of recognized standing and 
had pursued a certain number of courses in physics, chem- 
istry, and biology; but they were admitted only as special 
students. Now such men may be admitted as regular 
students, provided they have devoted one full year to the 
study of these subjects and that they have ranked in the 
upper third of their classes. In 1906, the Medical School 
was removed to its new buildings on Longwood Avenue. 
This stately group of five white marble buildings, which 
form a notable addition to the architecture of Boston, was 
erected at a cost of over three million dollars. The archi- 
tects were Messrs. Shepley, Ruttan and Coolidge, and the 
buildings, the result of prolonged study, combine many 
features that render them particularly well adapted to their 
purposes. Three of the buildings were the gift of the late 
John Pierpont Morgan, one the gift of Mrs. Collis P. Hunting- 
ton, and one the gift of Mr. David Sears. Other friends of 
medical science and of Harvard contributed liberally to the 
buildings . and their endowment, and Mr. John D. Rocke- 
feller gave one million dollars for the endowment fund. The 
total invested funds of the School amount to nearly $4,000,- 
000. In 1909, there was started a Department of Preventive 
Medicine and Hygiene; this gives the degree of Doctor of 
Public Hygiene ("D.P.H.")- In 1912, a Graduate School 
of Medicine was established, which has charge not only of 
the graduate work but of the summer courses in medicine. 
The erection of several new hospitals near the School has 
greatly increased its clinical advantages; these are the Peter 
Bent Brigham Hospital (opened in February, 1913) ; the 
Collis P. Huntington Memorial Hospital, erected by the 
Harvard Cancer Commission; the Infants' Hospital (Rotch 
Memorial Building); the Children's Hospital; and the Psy- 
chopathic Hospital. While the Medical School has done a 
great deal for the advancement of medical science by spe- 

31 



Class of Eighty Nine 



cial investigation and research in such subjects as cancer 
and tropical diseases, it has also done much for general ex- 
tension of the knowledge of hygiene and medical matters by 
giving series of popular lectures on Saturday evenings and 
Sunday afternoons. 

The Dental School. In 1909, the Dental School moved to its 
new and finely equipped building adjacent to the Medical 
School. This building is used for hospital and operating 
purposes ; all lecture courses for dental students are given 
in the Medical School building. The Dental School has 
only about $72,000 of invested funds, and is badly in need 
of additional endowment. 

The School for Health Officers, the most recent of the gradu- 
ate schools, is conducted in cooperation with the Institute 
of Technology. Its aim is to fit young men for public health 
work, and especially to prepare them to occupy administra- 
tive and executive positions, such as health officers, mem- 
bers of boards of health, or secretaries, agents, or inspectors 
of health organizations. It grants a Certificate of Public 
Health to candidates who have • satisfactorily completed an 
approved course of studies after at least one year of residence. 

The Library. The great event in the history of the Library 
for these twenty-five years comes at their very close. This 
is the gift of the great Widener Memorial Building, now 
being erected, and which it is hoped may be ready for occu- 
pancy next Fall. Harry Elkins Widener, '07, who lost his 
life in the sinking of the "Titanic," bequeathed to the 
Library his remarkable collection of rare books, but with 
one wise condition, — namely, that they should not be given 
to the Library until Harvard had a safe and proper place to 
keep them. This condition his mother, Mrs. George D. 
Widener, of Philadelphia, most generously met by giving 
in memory of her son the Library building which is now near- 
ing completion. There is no space in this report to describe 
the new building ; I can only briefly state that it was designed 
by Mr. Horace Trumbauer, of Philadelphia, is built of Har- 
vard brick with limestone trimmings, occupies a space of 
about 200 by 250 feet, and will give accommodation for at 
least two million volumes. As the new structure occupies 
in part the site of Gore Hall, it was necessary to tear down 

32 



Changes at Harvard, 1889-1914 



the latter and to find a temporary habitation for the library 
elsewhere. Thus for two years the Harvard Library has 
been in strange quarters; the greater part of the books and 
the staff of workers are located in Randall Hall, temporarily 
converted from its use as a dining-hall to more literary pur- 
poses; the reading-room is established in Massachusetts 
Hall; and the thousands of books that could not be crowded 
into Randall are colonized in various College buildings, — 
some in the Andover Theological School, some in the Univer- 
sity Museum, some in Emerson Hall, and others in whatever 
place could be found to hold them. Yet in spite of these 
abnormal conditions the work of the library has gone on 
much as usual, and all the books are so accessible that they 
can be delivered to an enquirer within a few hours. 

The Library has increased rapidly in size during the period 
under review: in 1889 it contained 268,000 volumes; today 
it has about 625,000 volumes. Its invested funds for the 
purchase of books have increased by nearly $200,000, and 
it has received many gifts and bequests of books and collec- 
tions. Only a few of these collections can be* mentioned 
here : the library of Professor Norton, given by subscriptions 
from his friends; the Hohenzollern collection of German 
history (over 11,000 volumes), given by Professor A. C. 
Coolidge; Professor Bocher's Moliere collection, given by 
James Hazen Hyde ; the Persius collection given by Professor 
Morgan; the Herbert collection given by Professor Palmer; 
and the Bowie library of early printed books and classics, 
given by Mrs. E. D. Brandegee in memory of her grand- 
father, William Fletcher Weld. The development of the 
Library has also been greatly helped by various gifts of 
money, some in single gifts of perhaps several thousand 
dollars, some in annual gifts of from twenty-five to two 
hundred dollars, from different graduates. These gifts, 
generally devoted to buying books on some subject in which 
the donor is interested, as, for example, Shakespeare, Moliere, 
London, China, or Folk-lore, have benefited the Library in 
enabling it to build up its collections on certain special sub- 
jects. 

But the whole story of the library resources of the Univer- 
sity is not told yet, for the" libraries of the various depart- 

33 



Class of Eighty Nine 



ments, such as the Law School, the Divinity School, the Gray 
Herbarium, etc., have shown a growth as vigorous as the 
College Library. These libraries have altogether over 
400,000 volumes, as compared to about 87,000 in 1889. 
Moreover, there has sprung up an entirely new system of 
special reference, or class-room libraries, that today have a 
total of some 71,000 volumes. Among these, for example, 
are the Classical Library, the Child Memorial Library of 
English Literature, the Chemistry Library, the Library of 
the Business School, and some thirty-five others. The total 
number of books and pamphlets belonging to the University 
is about 1,800,000. 

But in spite of, or rather because of, this great growth, the 
Library is far from prosperous. The funds available for 
administration have not kept pace with the book funds, and 
each year a large part of the " deficit" in the University ac- 
counts is due to the cost of running the Library. For years 
the Library has been hampered not only by a crowded and 
inconvenient building but by a lack of money for properly 
carrying on its work. And now, when it is about to occupy 
a magnificent new building, bringing with it not only neces- 
sarily increased running expenses but greater opportunities 
for better and broader work, the need of adequate funds will 
be felt more than ever before. 

The Astronomical Observatory, with an income of about 
$44,000 a year from invested funds continues to carry on 
scientific investigations of the greatest value. Observations 
are made not only at Cambridge but at its southern station 
in Arequipa, Peru. The collection of astronomical photo- 
graphs, consisting of over two hundred thousand glass 
plates, contains the only existing history of the stellar uni- 
verse for the last twenty-five years. The results of the 
work done at the Observatory have been published in a 
series of Annals, that now comprise seventy-five quarto 
volumes. 

The Bussey Institution, which was established as an under- 
graduate school of agriculture, was entirely reorganized in 
1908. It is now a part of the Graduate School of Applied 
Science and is an institution for advanced instruction and 
research in subjects relating to agriculture and horticulture. 

34 



Changes at Harvard, 1889-1914 



The fields of instruction and research represented in its 
work are economic entomology, animal heredity, and ex- 
perimental plant morphology. During part of the year the 
work of the Division of Forestry is carried on at the Bussey 
Institution. 

The Arnold Arboretum has developed into a public park of 
great attractiveness and beauty, filled with a representative, 
classified, growing collection of trees. These living collec- 
tions are supplemented by an herbarium, a museum, and a 
library of 28,500 volumes. Experiments are carried on in 
arboriculture, forestry, and dendrology. The maintenance 
of the drives and walks and police protection is assumed by 
the city of Boston in return for the privileges the public 
enjoy in the use of the grounds. 

The Gray Herbarium, through the generosity of Mr. Nathaniel 
T. Kidder, Mr. George R. White, and other friends, has been 
able to make large additions to its buildings and also almost 
entirely to reconstruct the older portions so as to render them 
fireproof and more convenient. The number of sheets of 
mounted specimens owned by the Herbarium is nearly 
500,000. It has issued a Card-index to New Genera and 
Species of American Plants, that now consists of over 100,000 
cards, and is by far the most extensive botanical undertaking 
of its kind. 

The Botanic Garden, beside its ordinary work in Cambridge, 
has been for some years conducting an experiment station in 
Cuba where work is in progress expected to improve the 
varieties of sugar-cane, rice, maize, and other vegetables, 
and to test the crops best suited to Cuban agriculture. 

The University Museum. The great University Museum 
building, to which an addition has just been made, completing 
the original plan of three sides of an open square facing 
Divinity Avenue, houses the Museum of Comparative 
Zoology, the Botanical Museum, the Mineralogical Museum, 
the Geological Museum, and the Peabody Museum of Amer- 
ican Archaeology and Ethnology, each one of them including 
besides its collections various laboratories for students and 
investigators. Both the Museum of Comparative Zoology 
and the Peabody Museum have sent out from time to time 
expeditions to different parts of the world for gathering ma- 

35 



Class of Eighty Nine 



terial for their collections and for making scientific investiga- 
tions, and both have published important series of mono- 
graphs. Their two libraries contain over 55,000 volumes 
and almost as many pamphlets. The Botanical Museum 
contains the interesting and beautiful collection of glass 
models of flowers, presented by Mrs. Elizaebth C. Ware and 
Miss Mary L. Ware, as a memorial of Dr. Charles Eliot Ware, 
'34, and made by the artists, Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka 
of Germany. 

The growth of museums and collections has been one of 
the most striking facts in the recent history of the College, 
and the funds now held by the Corporation for the support 
of museums and collections, including under that head the 
Arnold Arboretum, the Botanic Garden, and the Gray 
Herbarium, amount to over two and one-third million dollars. 
On the other hand, the funds devoted to the support of 
libraries and the purchase of books amount to a little over a 
million and a quarter. 

The Semitic Museum, on Divinity Avenue, was built in 1902 
(at an expense of about $80,000), but the collections, illus- 
trating the manners, customs, and history of the Semitic 
peoples, housed therein were begun ten years or more before. 
The building also contains a department library with a 
valuable collection of Arabic and Syriac manuscripts, and 
lecture rooms for the courses in Semitic subjects. Mr. 
Jacob H. Schiff of New York has been the steady patron of 
Semitic studies at Harvard, has contributed generously to 
the purchase of collections, gave the building, and gave the 
money necessary for important excavations at Samaria, 
which were carried on largely under the direction of our 
classmate, Reisner. 

The Germanic Museum, established in 1902, is for the present 
installed in the old gymnasium building, which turns out to 
be unexpectedly well adapted to the display of collections. 
The gifts of the German Emperor, the King of Saxony, the 
Prince Regent of Bavaria, the Swiss Government, and of a 
committee in Berlin form the most important and the most 
imposing treasures of the museum, but other objects are 
slowly being added, and only time and money are required 
to carry out the ambitious desires of the Curator, and to 

36 



Changes at Harvard, 1889-1914 



make this museum "a comprehensive yet condensed historical 
conspectus of the artistic and technical activity of the Ger- 
man race" not only in Germany proper but throughout 
Europe. 

The late Adolphus Busch gave money for a new building 
which will soon be erected on Kirkland Street, opposite 
Memorial Hall. The architect chosen is Professor Bestel- 
meyer of Dresden, and the building will be an interesting 
example of the best in modern German architecture. 

The William Hayes Fogg Art Museum was founded in 1895 by 
Mrs. Elizabeth Fogg of New York in memory of her husband. 
The building, which was designed by the late Richard M. 
Hunt, has recently been extensively altered, with the especial 
aim of making the upper gallery more available for exhibition 
purposes. It was the initial purpose of the Museum to em- 
brace in its collections only photographs, engravings, casts, 
and other reproductions, but not originals. But the gener- 
osity of its friends has brought to it a small, but important 
and steadily growing, collection of original works of art. It 
contains some good examples of Greek sculpture, a small 
collection of Greek vases, a number of early Italian, German, 
and Flemish paintings, and drawings by masters of the early 
English water color school. It has a large and growing col- 
lection of over 42,000 photographs of works of art of all 
countries and epochs, including architecture, sculpture, and 
painting. It also possesses the large Gray and Randall 
collections of prints and engravings. 

The Social Museum, placed in Emerson Hall, comprises a 
collection of some seven thousand photographs, models, 
diagrams, and charts illustrating the functions and achieve- 
ments of many movements of industrial and social welfare. 
It forms an important supplement to the courses in Social 
Ethics. 

University Extension. Since 1910, the Administrative Board 
for University Extension has offered certain courses to per- 
sons not in residence in the University. These courses 
include (1) the Summer School; (2) certain courses given in 
Boston under the Commission on Extension Courses, and 
partly supported by the Lowell Institute and the Teachers' 
School of Science; and (3) the School for Social Workers, 

37 



Class of Eighty Nine 



established in 1904 in connection with Simmons College, and 
open to both men and women. Our classmate, Ropes, is 
Dean of this department. 
The Summer Schools. In the summer of 1889, Harvard Col- 
lege gave instruction in eight different courses to 188 persons. 
Last year, the Summer School of Arts and Sciences, under 
the deanship of Ropes, offered over sixty courses in twenty 
different subjects to 793 persons. In addition to this over 
one hundred and fifty attended the Engineering Camp at 
Squam Lake, two hundred and seventy the Summer Gradu- 
ate School of Medicine, and twenty-nine the School of 
Applied Science. The attendance at the School of Arts and 
Sciences is usually about equally divided between men and 
women. From forty to fifty per cent of these are teachers in 
other colleges or in schools. Ten to fifteen per cent are 
generally Harvard students, studying either to make up 
some condition or to gain advanced standing. From one- 
sixth to a quarter attend the courses in physical training 
given under the direction of Dr. Sargent in the Hemenway 
Gymnasium. 

The Summer Schools are a great agency of university ex- 
tension, and provide for many persons, whose means 
or whose other duties prevent their taking a full college 
course, the same opportunities in single subjects that college 
students enjoy; and in addition all the resources of the 
University are thrown open to them: library, museums, 
laboratories, Phillips Brooks House, Memorial Hall, the 
College Chapel, the Gymnasium. Moreover, the summer 
students have special evening lectures and readings provided 
for them, and weekly excursions to places of interest in the 
vicinity. 

The existence of the Summer School has also made it 
possible for the University on more than one occasion to 
organize special courses of instruction for companies of 
foreigners, whose needs have been very different from those 
of the regular students. Thus in the summer of 1900 there 
appeared in Cambridge a party of 1273 Cuban teachers, who 
lent a foreign and picturesque air to the dull Cambridge 
summer. In 1904, three hundred and fifty teachers from 
Porto Rico took advantage of these summer courses, and two 

38 



Changes at Harvard, 1889-1914 



years later a group of forty Chinese students attended the 
School. 

University Press. For many years the College has maintained 
a printing office, where most of the official publications of the 
University, such as the Catalogue, the Annual Report, etc., 
were printed. But this was found to be far from adequate 
for present needs, and in January, 1913, the Corporation 
formally established the Harvard University Press. Its 
aim is to aid in the advancement of knowledge by the publica- 
tion of works of a high scholarly character that might not 
be considered a wise business venture by the ordinary com- 
mercial publisher. The University has a few funds that 
can be used for publication of special series, but it is hoped 
that additional money may be obtained to provide a suitable 
building for the Press, well equipped with printing presses 
and a varied assortment of types, especially for foreign 
languages. Meanwhile much of its printing must be done 
outside. There have already been published a number of 
important books by the Press, besides the different series 
and periodicals that it issues for the Departments. Among 
these are the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Harvard 
Theological Review, the Harvard Law Review, and the Archi- 
tectural Quarterly; Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, 
Historical Studies, Economic Studies, Studies in Comparative 
Literature, and Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature. 

Finally, let me urge every member of the Class to keep in touch 
with the current affairs and progress of the University. . The 
annual Report of the President is a volume that always 
repays careful reading; it will be sent free to any graduate 
who asks for it. (Address the Harvard University Press, 
2 University Hall.) The Harvard Graduates' Magazine 
(issued quarterly, S2 a year) is now in its twenty-second year. 
Its contents are varied and interesting, including a review 
of the University for each quarter, news from the College 
Classes and Harvard Clubs, a record of athletic events, articles 
on the history of the College and on undergraduate life, 
memoirs and portraits of Harvard men, views of new build- 
ings, the records of the Corporation, the necrology, and other 
matters of interest to the Alumni. The Harvard Alumni 
Bulletin (issued weekly during the College year, $3 a year), 

39 



Class of Eighty Nine 



has the advantage of more frequent publication in dealing 
with current affairs, and in its letters from graduates offers 
a forum for the profitable discussion of subjects of interest 
to the alumni. As the official organ of the Alumni Associa- 
tion, it can always be relied upon for accurate information. 
Our classmate, John D. Merrill, has long been its associate 
editor. The last and most recently established college organ 
is the Harvard University Gazette, published weekly. It con- 
tains the calendar of public lectures and meetings for the 
week, official information in regard to appointments, awards 
of prizes, votes of the Corporation, Overseers, and Faculty, 
and paragraphs in regard to work in progress in the several 
departments. Once a month it contains a list of the pub- 
lications of officers of the College. Let every '89 man take 
and read at least two of the above publications and it will 
be unnecessary for the present writer to try again to describe 
the "changes at Harvard in twenty-five years" ; each man will 
know all there is to know about the growth and progress of 
the University from 1914 to 1939. 

Secretary's Note. The above summary was prepared by Potter 
especially for this Report, at the request of the Class Secretary. 



APRIL 22, 1914. 



40 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



029 934 606 7 • 



L'BRARY OF CONGRESS 

029 934 606 7 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

029 934 606 7 



